


Spore

by ShianneUrami



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Body Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-07
Updated: 2013-05-07
Packaged: 2017-12-10 15:25:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/787558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShianneUrami/pseuds/ShianneUrami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Silence is never a good thing on Alternia. The quiet means something is very wrong. How soon is too late to realize though?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spore

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Flower](https://archiveofourown.org/works/787110) by [Saeto15](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saeto15/pseuds/Saeto15). 



Karkat was one to inform you when he wasn’t going to be at his computer, even if it was something simple like running to the hygiene block. So naturally, a twenty minute silence was cause for worry.

TA: 2o what are you goiing two do kk  
TA: you have two actually come up wiith 2omethiing 2ooner or later  
  
He didn’t answer.  
  
TA: what are you iignoriing me now  
  
Okay, this was just a little bit frustrating. He was being such a grub about this shit. This was important!  
  
TA: kk  
  
Nothing.  
  
TA: KK  
  
You stared for a while more, it felt like eternity looped around itself a few times before you typed out another line angrily.  
  
TA: wow way two go kk even ed would be more mature than thii2 ii never thought iid 2ee the day  
  
You felt vaguely guilty as soon as you hit enter, because wow, you just compared your best friend to _that_. You’re kind of shitty aren’t you? Your fingers hovered over the keys to write out an apology, when the grey broke up the yellow finally.  
  
CG: OKAY  
  
Blinking at it, then narrowing your eyes in confusion-  
  
TA: waiit what  
  
His rancorous little dot blinked to grey and you watched it for a few moments before slumping back in your chair. What the hell was his problem?

**

You didn’t see him for a long time after that. A really long time. You talked to him every night without fail, even if one or both of you felt like shit, which was often. Mentally and physically. It was a routine for you. You were friends. But there was a long time that you didn’t see him.

You asked your other mutual friends if they’d seen him, and that’s a negative. No one had heard from Karkat Vantas, and you were the last one to talk to him. You looked over your conversation and it was nothing that you haven’t said before, especially lately. The same old same old chats you had every night.

CG: NO, I’M DEAD SERIOUS SOLLUX, IT’S NOT FUCKING FUNNY.  
CG: YOU BRING IT UP ALL THE TIME AND GOD KNOWS I KNOW IT’S IMPORTANT, SO DELETE THAT LINE TELLING ME THAT MY LIFE IS ON THE LINE HERE BECAUSE SURPRISE SURPRISE, I ALREADY FUCKING KNOW THAT.  
TA: kk dude ii can’t 2tre22 thii2 enough. iif we don’t fiigure thii2 out you’ll be culled on 2iight  
TA: one blood te2t and iit’2 the fork two the thorax.  
CG: I KNOW OKAY? I REALLY DO.  
CG: BUT I’VE BEEN RIPPING MY PAN APART TRYING TO FIGURE IT OUT AND NOTHING COMES TO MIND.  
TA: have you thought about talkiing two ff about thii2  
CG: WHAT THE HELL IS THE FISH PRINCESS GONNA DO ABOUT THIS? SHE HAS NO POWER RIGHT NOW. SHE ONLY WOULD IF SHE WINS AGAINST HER MAJESTY AND LETS FACE IT  
CG: DO YOU HONESTLY SEE FEFERI WINNING AGAINST /THAT/?  
CG: BECAUSE I SURE AS FUCK DON’T.  
TA: we’ll fiigure thii2 out, lay off ff. 2he’2 2tre22iing out about that enough a2 iit ii2. her liife’2 on the liine two  
CG: AND THEN WE HAVE YOU.  
TA: no. 2top riight there. we are not gettiing iintwo my 2hiit two  
TA: ju2t don’t kk. 2eriiou2ly  
CG: ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO JUST GO WITH IT AND BECOME A HELMSMAN? BIOWIRES AND AGONY JUST LIKE YOUR ANCESTOR.  
TA: karkat, ii ju2t fuckiing 2aiid we’re not doiing thii2  
TA: what ii deciide ii2 none of your goddamn bu2iine22 becau2e my liife ii2 not at 2take  
CG: NO, YOUR FREEDOM IS.  
TA: 2iince when do you giive two flyiing fuck2 about the 2tate of iindependance  
  
The line is quiet for a minute there, and you remember hissing quietly. It really was none of his business whether you decided to submit to your fate as a psionic, or fight it somehow. You couldn’t find a way out of that, just like the fate of 90% of trolls. These things were deep rooted traditions suited to each caste. It was how it worked. And he needed to butt out about it.  
  
CG: FORGET IT SOLLUX, DO WHAT YOU WANT. YOU’RE RIGHT, I DON’T GIVE TWO SOARING SHITS.  
TA: good. but thii2 mean2 you diiverted from the real ii22ue here AGAIIN  
TA: but you really need two fiigure thii2 2hiit out kk, a2cen2iion ii2 half a 2weep away  
TA: 2o what are you goiing two do kk  
TA: you have two actually come up wiith 2omethiing 2ooner or later  
  
You had read the log at least a dozen times in the past week. Had what you said really hit him this hard? Did he not want to talk to you anymore? For the first time in all the time you’d known Karkat Vantas, you fear for the state of your friendship. Normally it was him to fret, but you did in that moment.

**

Another week passed before you decided to get off your useless ass and do something about this. You decided that you are going to go to his hive, snap him out of this funk and you were going to get your friend back because you knew he was off wallowing in his own self hatred and being gross and whiny. You did it too. But you were sick of being bored off your bulge because he wasn’t around. It wasn’t until then that you realized just how much time you spent with him, and without him around all you wanted to do was scream.

You swore you were going to flay alive whoever told you making friends would be a good idea.

Just for good measure you read through that pesterlog again and left your desk in a huff, tearing out of your hive to give a certain douchepod a piece of your mind.

**

A splash of the empire’s color painted his rooftop, you almost mistook it for one of his gaudy red overhangings. But it wasn’t. It was a bright smear of red across the black. He was laying in the middle of it and you could see him from where you were, suspended in the air above his hive. What an idiot to be out there like that!  
  
Before you landed you’re already bitching him out, “KK, thith ith jutht a little bit ridiculouth, don’t you think? I’ve had blue thpellth but thith ith bad, even for yo-”

The smell slammed into you and you dropped the foot left to the roof and stumbled, a hand to your chest and your face distorted. You put the back of the other hand to you nose, trying to block the smell of death and decay that was wrapping itself around you. Something was dead up here, and it was a wonder how Karkat hadn’t noticed it by now.

You shuffled through the paint, admittedly a nice color, though cheap obviously with how it flaked when you stepped across it. You knelt next to Karkat, shaking his shoulder gently, “Hey bulgelick, are you theriouthly athleep on your roof? Who doeth that?”

You rolled him over easily and your blood pusher stopped.

Coils of pale yellow twisted and shifted ever so slightly, reaching towards the ever expansive sky. The largest jutted from his eye socket, the red you thought was paint; it was blood. His hand fell over his chest, fingers stained with the same red. Your hand against your nose covered your mouth as you took it all in. Streaks of this _thing_ curled out of him. His hand, out of his neck, one from the top of his skull.

You lost it when you saw the discarded eye next to him with claw marks in it. The remaining eye was stark white and you fell back on your ass into the dried blood marring the rooftop, scared speechless.

He was dead.

Karkat Vantas was dead and he had a fungus growing out of his body!

_How much does my blood matter to the empire now Sollux?_

You sat numb, staring at the body that was once your friend, the wind was harsh, bringing with it angry voices. They swam in your head, some screaming and enraged, others calm but bitter. The wind rustled the fungus growing from his corpse and they burst suddenly, spores filling the air, the gust whipping them about.

You gasped, leaping up out of the dried gore and into the air. You twisted up and out and away as fast as your psionics could get you and stayed there, shaking. You watched his body for a few moments more before jetting off with a growl.

**  
  
Two nights later you lose all motivation to bicker and fight. You log off Trollian and stumble through the halls of your hive aimlessly.


End file.
